Contemporary fiction regularly refers to communications technology that would have been sf through most of the twentieth century. James Bond received telegrams from M. Matt Helm had to find a public phone to contact Mac. The Man from UNCLE was ahead of his time with his hand-held satellite communicator. A character has a mobile phone in her handbag in Robert Heinlein's Future History. Nowadays an author setting a scene a few years ago has to check the state of technology then to prevent anachronism. A contemporary novel might have an epilogue about its characters in old age a few decades hence. That epilogue might feature some speculative future tech without the novel becoming sf. Some future tech, like FTL drives, has become sf cliches. Poul Anderson managed to write creatively while also becoming a master of the cliches. For example, he varied his means of FTL and his Technic History version seems almost plausible: quantum mechanics circumvents relativity. It might be possible to work towards less of a split between mainstream and sf.
13 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
Yes, but some readers might well prefer that there be a sharp distinction, even split, between mainstream fiction and science fiction. Fans of either could desire the fictions they read focusing either on those contemporary, ordinary characteristics of every day life or go way beyond them technologically or sociologically, as seen in science fiction. I, personally, lean more to the latter.
If we live to see colonies being founded on the Moon, Mars, elsewhere in the Solar System, etc., there will be writers who will compose interplanetary mainstream literature. That would be a kind of merging of two different types of literature.
Merry Christmas! Sean
What's really hard is writing -near future- tech. I've done scenes set in 2032 recently, and it was a stone bitch. Luckily it's an alternate 2032... 8-).
As ever!
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
I have argued you don't really need to set so many of your stories in alternate worlds. Simply accept that a story starting in our real world becomes an alternate timeline when it inevitably diverges from that real world.
Merry Christmas! Sean
I think that makes sense.
Kaor, Paul!
Thanks! And I still enjoy well done alternate world SF.
Merry Christmas! Sean
Sean: that's perfectly OK for stories set in the -present-. But near-future... not so much.
For example, that story with the mobile phone... but kept in a handbag. How many younger women you see carry a purse? It's a dying habit, like wearing skirts.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
I'm just trying to understand your M.O.! (Smiles)
Actually, many, many women I see still carry handbags. And I'm sure they use them for carrying things like purses and cell phones. And quite a few other items.
Skirts? Not so often, I agree. Pity!
Merry Christmas! Sean
Sean: well, originally most men and women in Europe wore skirts -- as one of my characters in TO TURN THE TIDE says, he's wearing what feels like a baggy Mother Hubbard dress, the women just have longer skirts on theirs.
Then men transitioned to wearing pants -- in some ways ecclesiastical robes or a monk's habit are a survival of late-Roman male garb.
So the gradual female transition to pants in the last century is just a sort of belated catchng-up.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
I fear I did not have anything grander in mind than appreciating how skirts allowed me to admire nice well turned legs in pretty women! (Smiles)
Merry Christmas! Sean
I've run across comments from women that they appreciate the legs on men in kilts.
Either way fair enough in warm weather.
Kaor, Jim!
Or when men wear shorts. It goes both ways! (Smiles)
Merry Christmas! Sean
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